Alexis De Tocqueville Socialism Quotes & Sayings

People think that the destructive theories that nowadays go by the name "socialism" are of recent origin. This is a mistake: these theories were contemporaneous with the first Economists. While they employed the all-powerful government of their dreams as an instrument to change the forms of society, socialists imagined seizing the same power to undermine its base. — Alexis De Tocqueville

Democracy extends the sphere of personal independence; socialism confines it. Democracy values each man at his highest; socialism makes of each man an agent, an instrument, a number. Democracy and socialism have but one thing in common - equality. But note well the difference. Democracy aims at equality in liberty. Socialism desires equality in constraint and in servitude. — Alexis De Tocqueville

The free worker receives a wage; the slave an education, food, care, clothing; the money that the master spends to keep the slave is drained little by little and in detail; one hardly perceives it.1 — Alexis De Tocqueville

Socialism is a new form of slavery. — Alexis De Tocqueville

Democracy extends the sphere of individual freedom, socialism restricts it. Democracy attaches all possible value to each man; socialism makes each man a mere agent, a mere number. Democracy and socialism have nothing in common but one word: equality. But notice the difference: while democracy seeks equality in liberty, socialism seeks equality in restraint and servitude. — Alexis De Tocqueville

It's not an endlessly expanding list of rights - the 'right' to education, the 'right' to health care, the 'right' to food and housing. That's not freedom, that's dependency. Those aren't rights, those are the rations of slavery - hay and a barn for human cattle. — Alexis De Tocqueville

Centralization and socialism are products of the same soil. The one is to the other what the cultivated fruit is to the wild stock. — Alexis De Tocqueville

These diverse effects of slavery and freedom are easily understood: ... the men in Kentucky [neither] have zeal nor enlightenment ... cross over into Ohio in order to utilize their industry and to be able to exercise it without shame ... in Kentucky, masters make slaves work without being obliged to pay them, but they receive little fruit from their efforts, while the money that they would give to free workers would be recovered with interest from the value of their labors. — Alexis De Tocqueville

As for me, I am deeply a democrat; this is why I am in no way a socialist. Democracy and socialism cannot go together. You can't have it both ways ... socialism is a new form of slavery. — Alexis De Tocqueville